Earlier this month in a miraculous stroke of luck, the The Drug Enforcement Administration finally caught up with the leader of the Arellano Felix drug cartel.The D.E.A recieved a tip Mr. Arellano-Felix was on board a boat in U.S waters.
They had been looking for Felix for several years. Felix was spotted on a sport fishing boat by agents who then asked the Coast Guard to stop the boat.
The Coast Guard boarded a U.S. registered fishing boat about 15 miles off the coast of Mexico and finally caught Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, who was deep-sea fishing off Mexico in a sport fishing boat named Dock Holiday.
The Coast Guard boarded a U.S. registered fishing boat about 15 miles off the coast of Mexico and finally caught Mexican drug lord Francisco Javier Arellano Felix, who was deep-sea fishing off Mexico in a sport fishing boat named Dock Holiday.
The cartel was once led by seven brothers and four sisters and has been in operation since the 1980's.
Javier's brother Ramon was killed in a shootout with police in 2002. In February, Ramón Arellano Félix, the muscle of the cartel, was killed in a shootout with the police in Mazatlán.
Javier's brother Ramon was killed in a shootout with police in 2002. In February, Ramón Arellano Félix, the muscle of the cartel, was killed in a shootout with the police in Mazatlán.
In March, his brother Benjamin, was arrested and sent to a maximum-security prison near Mexico City. Benjamin is thought to be the brains of the large cartel.
The Coast Guard Cutter Monsoon towed the Dock Holiday, back to San Diego. Once safely docked DEA agents arrested Arellano Felix and others among the eight adults and three children who were captured on board.
Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, 37, was one of the last remaining ring leaders of the Arellano Félix gang. The group, based in Tijuana, is charged in over twenty killings
in the U.S and Mexico, including that of a Roman Catholic cardinal.
(Cardinal Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo in 1993)
The gang is also believed to be behind several smuggling tunnels found in recent years, including a huge tunnel uncovered in a warehouse in San Diego in January.
The Arellano Félix gang is a family cartel that was the model for the one in the film "Traffic".
Mexican law enforcement officials have dealt serious blows to the Arellano Félix gang in recent years. But have been so far unable to dismantle the cartel on its home turf in Tijuana, one of the world's busiest border crossings.
Law enforcement officials say Benjamin Arellano Félix has continued to direct the organization from prison and is working with Osiel Cárdenas, who is the leader of the rival Mexican Drug Cartel, in the same prison.
Together the two gang leaders have been fighting with other small time drug dealers who control the border crossing at Ciudad Juárez for control of Mexico's lucrative cocaine, heroin and marijuana trade.
Francisco Javier Arellano Félix is believed by some American officials to have taken over the reins of the Tijuana cartel in 2002, transmitting instructions from his jailed brother, Benjamín.
But some independent analysts say another brother, Eduardo, a medical student, and a sister, Enedina, overseeing its finances are more essential to the operation.
It remains to be seen exactly what it will take to stop this violent cartel.
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Comments: 8
LOL
At least they only have a few more to go before they start looking at arresting the other cartels.
http://www.dea.gov/pubs/pressrel/pr082406.html, appears to be from the very people who want us to believe we are winning the war on drugs. I am not saying that catching a bad guy is not a good thing...it is. My problem is that the war on drugs is being fought incorrectly. The vast majority of the funds are spent capturing, prosecuting, and housing the low level drug dealers, (that can be replaced within days), without stopping the flow across our borders. If they ever want to win that war, they better consult SUN TZU...The Art of Warfare. Thanks for providing a platform J H
Plus, they have been after Francisco Javier Arellano Felix since the 80's. They still do not have the whole cartel, it is still in full operation. Mexican government is so corrupt. They tend to protect the cartel members. Mexico is now the new Columbia as far as drug trafficing goes. The war on drugs does not concentrate on the drug trade that is smuggled to the U.S. from Mexico. They need too.
One of Felix' girlfriends probably got mad at him and decided to turn him in.
I threw that dea.gov link in to show what they had to say about the arrest. Notice how they do not mention it was a tip. LOL
Below:
Francisco Javier Arellano-Felix, the current leader of the narcotics trafficking Arellano-Felix Organization ("AFO"), was arrested by the United States Coast Guard in international waters south of Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico. The Coast Guard, working closely with the DEA, apprehended Arellano-Felix and seven other adults in a recreational vessel on Monday
>from the link in the article